Supplier parks in the automotive industry

The auto industry has undergone substantial structural and other change in the last 20 years. The influences of globalisation, implementation of lean production and the development of modularisation have had profound influences on the relationships between automobile assemblers (OEMs) and their suppliers, in particular those in the first tier. In the age of e‐business and global outsourcing the development of supplier parks could be argued to be surprising. This paper briefly outlines the development of supplier parks as part of the auto industry supply chain and offers some potential theoretical perspectives on why they have emerged.